Monday 2 April 2012 - Strange Whites

[jules]

Forum member Ewan, otherwise known as Dynamo Duck, found some strange looking craters on the South-East edge of Mare Crisium at Latitude: 12.275°  Longitude: 62.1034°. They appear to have unusually high albedo floors and possibly some ejecta of the same high albedo material.



Searching around the area I found some more of these "strange whites."

Here are two.

And closer...

And then they were everywhere.



At the moment they remain a puzzle. They look like bench/concentric craters but why are the floors so "white"? What is this high albedo material and why are there so many of these craters in this region of Mare Crisium? 

While we work out the answers here are some NACs for you to peruse showing the "strange whites" under different illumination.

M137136039RE
M119449091RE
M144212439LE

[kodemunkey]

I've found this:



And this:



I'll have a look around the area and see if i can turn anything else up.


http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc/view_lroc/LRO-L-LROC-2-EDR-V1.0/M139517430RE

[jules]

They look like the usual crater types to me KM - rather than the strange bright floored variety.

[jules]

Here's another:
It may just be the way these are illuminated but I've never noticed such a marked effect as this before.

[kodemunkey]

Hmm, that is interesting.

[jules]

And another thing. All the ones I've seen so far are on the small side, 75m diameter or less. The ACT-REACT topographical tool doesn't seem to work for such small craters either - the graphs show them as level terrain.

[kodemunkey]

To quote the internet:

[Geoff]

Just found another strange white:



ID: AMZ1003kve
Latitude: 27.9878°
Longitude: -60.4753°
Sun Angle: -65.41°
Scale: 1.51 meters / pixel
Zoom Level: 3

[jules]

Different region too. Oceanus Procellarum.

[Dynamo Duck]

One theory I have come up with about these craters with white dots in the middle is that perhaps the surface at that point on the moon has a layer of darker material, say from a lava flow, above a layer of white dust. When the meteor has hit the surface, the majority of the displaced material has been black, but where the meteor hit and the hole is slightly deeper, its exposed the layer of white stuff.

Cheers. Ewan.

[kodemunkey]

hmm, new search topic mayhap?

[jules]

Maybe. This thread will do for now if we find any new ones. Our Moon Zoo science team expert should be joining us in the summer to help us out. These are definitely on the "to do" list!

[lizardly]

Electric fields enveloping magnetic bubbles create lunar swirls-
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/342189/title/Moon_patterns_explained



Photo credit NASA

[kodemunkey]

That's Rienner Gamma.

[jules]

Hi lizardly nice to see you on Moon Zoo! We are also looking for lunar swirls and collecting them here. They are not craters like these strange whites but odd markings on the lunar terrain - though they do exhibit white swirly patterns. If you come across any likely candidates please let us know by posting them in the thread.